Shyima Hall from Egypt, sold into slavery at age 8 and trafficked into the U.S.

________________________________________

Everyone can play a role in identifying victims of human trafficking. Health care and social service providers; law enforcement officials; and ethnic, community, and faith-based organizations may encounter victims through their work.

An informed community member could also be a victim’s link to freedom. It is important to be vigilant and to “look beneath the surface” in situations that don’t seem quite right. One chance encounter could be a victim’s best hope for rescue.

***************

Who Is a Human Trafficking Victim?

Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which victims are subjected to force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of commercial sex, debt bondage, or involuntary labor.

Victims of human trafficking can be young children, teenagers, men and women. They can be U.S. citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) or foreign nationals, and they can be found in urban, suburban, and rural areas.

Minors (under the age of 18) who are induced to perform commercial sex acts are victims of trafficking, regardless of whether their traffickers used force, fraud, or coercion.

A victim could be a man who does not speak English who is suspiciously injured “on the job” and shows signs of old bruising.

A victim could be an abused woman who doesn’t know what city she is in when brought to the emergency room, and who is accompanied by a controlling companion who insists on speaking for her.

A victim could be a fearful individual who quietly slips in and out of a local church on Sunday morning, or a child who lives in the neighborhood, yet doesn’t go to school or play outside.

Evidence of being controlled either physically or psychologically; Inability to leave home or place of work; Inability to speak for oneself or share one’s own information; Information is provided by someone accompanying the individual; Loss of control of one’s own identification documents (ID or passport); Have few or no personal possessions; Owe a large debt that the individual is unable to pay off; or Loss of sense of time or space, not knowing where they are or what city or state they are in.

***************

The Mindset of a Trafficking Victim

A human trafficking victim may develop a mindset of fear, distrust, denial, and conflicting loyalties. Foreign victims of trafficking are often fearful of being deported or jailed and, therefore, they may distrust authority figures, particularly law enforcement and government officials.

Similarly, traffickers may convince sex trafficking victims who are U.S. citizens or LPRs that, if they report their traffickers to the police, the police will jail the victim for prostitution while the traffickers, pimps, or johns will go free.

Many victims of both sex and labor trafficking fear that if they escape their servitude and initiate investigations against their trafficker, the trafficker and his/her associates will harm the victims, the victims’ family members, or others.

***************

Psychological and Behavioral Clues

Being able to recognize the psychological and emotional consequences of human trafficking can also be helpful in identifying victims. Victims often:

Develop general feelings of helplessness, shame, guilt, self-blame, and humiliation;

In this video published on Feb 16, 2015, Dr. Darrell Bock, Mike Bartel and Darlene Line discuss human trafficking, focusing on identifying victims in the United States.

00:13 Human trafficking definition and statistics
03:02 Bartel’s pastoral background and the issue of human trafficking
05:38 Line’s law enforcement background and the issue of human trafficking
08:53 Why is it difficult to identify international victims as they enter the United States?
12:32 How are domestic victims of human trafficking different?
14:31 What is Stockholm syndrome?
17:39 What clues might suggest one should alert law enforcement to potential human trafficking activity?
21:04 Find — The procedure for identifying and helping victims
25:23 How can churches get involved with this issue?
28:47 Rescue — How are people rescued from human trafficking in the United States?
32:24 How is substance abuse related to human trafficking?